manhattan

Date traveled: November 5, 2017

To be clear, this wasn’t a proper Manhattan trip. This was a ‘I have a stop-over so I have a few hours to walk around and take pictures’ type of trip.

I’m pretty happy no one was there to witness me sweating (very literally – I had a winter jacket and full backpack and it was like 15 degrees), wondering how the hell the streets could be so empty within sight of the iconic New York skyline. After spending a couple hours trying to figure out how to walk across the Hudson River (fun fact: you can’t), I took the bus from Union City to Manhattan, and I got off shortly after it went over the bridge because I no idea where it would take me. Not having international data normally doesn’t impact my life one iota, but days like this I feel like I really am on my own.

New York City, or at least the small part of it I saw (middle-upper Manhattan) was pretty much exactly what I thought it’d be like, which I guess makes sense considering how many depictions of it I’ve seen. The thing that surprised me was how close all these things I’ve heard of are – I don’t think the city is necessarily that large by area, but man a lot is packed in.

I’m not much of a Times Square guy – I’m anti-capitalism, anti-crowd, anti-over-hype – but the bus happened to drop me off a couple blocks away, and I only had a few hours, so I thought may as well take it in. That way, next time I’m in New York I won’t feel like I have to see it.

Times Square was actually smaller than I thought, and I quickly realized that it’s quite literally just a bunch of large flashy ads around a small square. I guess I wasn’t expecting anything different, but I had never really thought about it.

One of the most noticeable things was the depressed people dressed as superhero and cartoon knockoffs trying to get you to take your picture with them for money. They had designated zones on the sidewalk where they were allowed to stand.

I didn’t fall for the pictures – I’d seen enough spoofs of that sort of thing on Arrested Development episodes to know better – but I did accidentally spend $6.50 American on a small slice of pizza after spending a reasonable $4 for a coffee and muffin just a few blocks away. Location (the pizza place was on the main strip) is everything.

Aside from Times Square, I wanted to see nearby Central Park. As luck would have it I was there the day of the marathon, which goes through Central Park, so it was blocked off. While walking alongside it, a woman walked up beside me to tell me her whole story and ask me the same questions about my life and where I’m from about a dozen times, but I was feeling generous with my time, not really having anything in particular to do, so I put off ditching her until I got close to Trump Tower which I wanted to see for its unfortunate new-found historical significance.

I’m still not sure if I actually saw Trump Tower, but I did see a lot of tall buildings, one in particular that literally went above the clouds on a day that the clouds were ‘actual clouds’ and not just fog.

There’s a metaphor in there for things seeming grand but really just being out of focus – whether it’s Hollywood, Times Square, the US in general, or a 2-week+ plus Eurotrip with an overnight stop in New York. What you don’t see on people’s vacation photos are the days of insomnia, the dirty hostels, the accidental cab rides when you’re desperate that cost almost as much as the flight home.

I’ve been meaning to visit New York practically my whole life, and for a while I daydreamed about living there, sharing a too-small apartment and writing under-appreciated literature inspired by the city and my place within it. More recently I regretted never visiting New York when I lived relatively close for so many years – as much as a seven hour drive isn’t nothing, when living on the other coast, a New York trip is almost unimaginable.

Nothing is what it seems, or maybe it’s exactly what it seems when you’ve grown up in an era of media decentralization, exposing the facade of happiness in adverts and tall glass buildings. I’m happy I don’t live in New York, but I’d love to see the rest of it soon.